The SEC announced enforcement actions against 36 municipal underwriting firms for violations that involved municipal bond offerings. These cases are the first to be brought against underwriters under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation ("MCDC") Initiative, which is a voluntary self-reporting program that targets material misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offering documents. The SEC alleged that between 2010 and 2014, the 36 firms violated federal securities laws by selling municipal bonds using offering documents that contained omissions and materially false

The SEC Chair's rulemaking agenda was published in the Federal Register. The agenda was submitted pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The agenda discusses each of the SEC Divisions' completed, long-term and final rule stage rulemaking initiatives. Comments on the regulatory agenda are due by July 20, 2015. See: 80 FR 35174.

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Annual Report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew's testified. In his remarks, Secretary Lew reported that the FSOC 2015 report focuses on 11 themes that warrant "continued attention" and further action. In particular, FSOC recommended: the establishment of a national plan for cyber incident responses to the private sector, coordinated by the Treasury, in order to identify and articulate the roles of law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and financial regulators regarding

In comments filed with the SEC, SIFMA and the Investment Company Institute (together, the "Associations") voiced support for efforts by the financial services industry to shorten settlement cycles for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, and financial instruments composed of such products that are traded on the secondary market. According to the Associations, shortening the settlement cycle to the second business day after the trade date ("T+2") rather than the third day will increase the overall efficiency of the securities market and promote financial stability

MFA provided comments to Her Majesty's Treasury ("HMT") in response to consultation on the HMT publication, Transposition of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II ("MiFID II"). MFA voiced its general support for HMT's "copy-out" approach to drafting the UK-implementing legislation, and for other aspects of MiFID II implementation. According to MFA, however, certain aspects of MiFID II would benefit from additional guidance and greater detail being incorporated into the UK-implementing legislation because that would help to ensure that the regime is implemented effectively and